the cat and mouse | past present future
me myself iArchive for August, 2007
more food toxins dogs should avoid
Q. Which foods could be dangerous for my dog?
A. Some foods which are edible for humans, and even other species of animals, can pose hazards for dogs because of their different metabolism. Some may cause only mild digestive upsets, whereas, others can cause severe illness, and even death. The following common food items should not be fed (intentionally or unintentionally) to dogs. This list is, of course, incomplete because we can not possibly list everything your dog should not eat.
| Items to avoid | Reasons to avoid |
|---|---|
| Alcoholic beverages | Can cause intoxication, coma, and death. |
| Baby food | Can contain onion powder, which can be toxic to dogs. (Please see onion below.) Can also result in nutritional deficiencies, if fed in large amounts. |
| Bones from fish, poultry, or other meat sources | Can cause obstruction or laceration of the digestive system. |
| Cat food | Generally too high in protein and fats. |
| Chocolate, coffee, tea, and other caffeine | Contain caffeine, theobromine, or theophylline, which can be toxic and affect the heart and nervous systems. |
| Citrus oil extracts | Can cause vomiting. |
| Fat trimmings | Can cause pancreatitis. |
| Grapes and raisins | Contain an unknown toxin, which can damage the kidneys. There have been no problems associated with grape seed extract. |
| Hops | Unknown compound causes panting, increased heart rate, elevated temperature, seizures, and death. |
| Human vitamin supplements containing iron | Can damage the lining of the digestive system and be toxic to the other organs including the liver and kidneys. |
| Large amounts of liver | Can cause Vitamin A toxicity, which affects muscles and bones. |
| Macadamia nuts | Contain an unknown toxin, which can affect the digestive and nervous systems and muscle. |
| Marijuana | Can depress the nervous system, cause vomiting, and changes in the heart rate. |
| Milk and other dairy products | Some adult dogs and cats do not have sufficient amounts of the enzyme lactase, which breaks down the lactose in milk. This can result in diarrhea. Lactose-free milk products are available for pets. |
| Moldy or spoiled food, garbage | Can contain multiple toxins causing vomiting and diarrhea and can also affect other organs. |
| Mushrooms | Can contain toxins, which may affect multiple systems in the body, cause shock, and result in death. |
| Onions and garlic (raw, cooked, or powder) | Contain sulfoxides and disulfides, which can damage red blood cells and cause anemia. Cats are more susceptible than dogs. Garlic is less toxic than onions. |
| Persimmons | Seeds can cause intestinal obstruction and enteritis. |
| Pits from peaches and plums | Can cause obstruction of the digestive tract. |
| Potato, rhubarb, and tomato leaves; potato and tomato stems | Contain oxalates, which can affect the digestive, nervous, and urinary systems. This is more of a problem in livestock. |
| Raw eggs | Contain an enzyme called avidin, which decreases the absorption of biotin (a B vitamin). This can lead to skin and hair coat problems. Raw eggs may also contain Salmonella. |
| Raw fish | Can result in a thiamine (a B vitamin) deficiency leading to loss of appetite, seizures, and in severe cases, death. More common if raw fish is fed regularly. |
| Salt | If eaten in large quantities it may lead to electrolyte imbalances. |
| String | Can become trapped in the digestive system; called a “string foreign body.” |
| Sugary foods | Can lead to obesity, dental problems, and possibly diabetes mellitus. |
| Table scraps (in large amounts) | Table scraps are not nutritionally balanced. They should never be more than 10% of the diet. Fat should be trimmed from meat; bones should not be fed. |
| Tobacco | Contains nicotine, which affects the digestive and nervous systems. Can result in rapid heart beat, collapse, coma, and death. |
| Yeast dough | Can expand and produce gas in the digestive system, causing pain and possible rupture of the stomach or intestines. |
skin cancer/melanoma: ABCD
Learn (!!!!!!!!!!!) these ABCDs (Asymmetry/Border/Color/Diameter): of skin cancer/melanoma…please! It’s all too common and too deadly:
Mother Theresa’s crisis of faith
“What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You are also not true.”
known fruit/vegetable toxins to dogs
Yikes…I could’ve easily fed grapes to my dog, Matilda! 
Thanks to my mother for calling me today to warn me about grapes and raisins.
Known Food Toxins To Dogs: Fruits, Vegetables, Food
Apple, Almond, Apricot, Peach, Wild Cherries, Plum, Balsam Pear, Prunes and similar fruit: Diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, (Stem, Seeds and Leaves) The seeds of most fruits contain cyanide, which is poisonous to dogs as well as humans.
Avocados: The fruit, pit and plant are all toxic. They can cause difficulty breathing and fluid accumulation in the chest, abdomen and heart
Broccoli: reported to be pretty potent gastrointestinal irritant
Cherry: rapid breathing, shock, mouth inflammation, heart rate increase
Chocolate: seizures, coma, hyperactivity, rapid heart beat, tremors, death. Bakers chocolate is the most dangerous. A dog can consume milk chocolate and appear to be fine because it is not as concentrated but is still very dangerous.
• 1 oz per lb of body weight for (2 oz per kg) of body weight for bakers chocolate
• 1 oz per 3 lbs of body weight (1 oz per 1.5 kg body weight) for semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 oz per 9lbs of body weight (1 oz per 4 kg) for bakers chocolate
• Please keep in mind that these are only guidelines, and if you suspect your pet had ingested chocolate, please keep an eye out for ANY signs of poisoning! Every dog reacts differently to quantity.
Coffee/Tea: Drinks/Foods: containing caffeine or sugar may cause many of the same symptoms chocolate causes.
Cooked Bones: uncooked bones should be safe but if they are cooked you should refrain because they deteriorate and easily splinter. Can cause extensive damage to internal organs and passage ways, may times resulting in death.
Mushrooms: acute gastric effects, liver and kidney damage, abdominal pain, nausea, salivation, vomiting
Nutmeg: tremors, seizures and death
Tobacco: nausea, salivation, vomiting, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat)
Onion: (cats are more sensitive), gastrointestinal upset, hemolytic anemia, heinz body anemia, hemogloinria, destroys red blood cells
Grapes, Raisins, Prunes: kidney failure, as little as a single serving of grapes or raisins can kill a dog. It takes anywhere from 9 oz to 2 lbs of grapes and raisins (between .041 and 1.1 oz/kg of body weight), to cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, and possible kidney failure
Salt: excessive intake can cause kidney problems
Raw Eggs: Many people feed raw eggs to their dogs but keep in mind that they can contain salmonella. Dogs do have a higher immunity against salmonella poisoning but are not immune and have been reported to get it from uncooked eggs.
Top 25 Scientific Breakthroughs
With help from long-time science observers, USA TODAY’s Dan Vergano counts down the 25 top milestones.
1 Accelerating universe (1998)
Exploding stars, receding at an ever-faster pace, stunned scientists by showing that an anti-gravity effect is relentlessly expanding the universe. This expansion still defies explanation.
2 Human genome (1999)
Competing public and private teams declared victory in mapping human DNA’s 24,000 or so genes, ushering in a coming era of gene-based medicine.
Reuters
3 Climate accord (2001-2007)
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change went from finding global warming “very likely” to “unequivocal,” a view that coincides with growing public acceptance.
NASA via AP
4 Hubble launched (1990)
The Hubble space telescope overcame early mirror distortions to become astronomy’s most productive observatory and a symbol of scientific achievement.
5 Big Bang fingerprinted (1992)
NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) probe mapped the fiery Big Bang’s aftermath, detecting hot spots in the early universe that coalesced into galaxies.
Mike Groll, AP
6 DNA fingerprinting (1985)
Sir Alec Jeffreys at the United Kingdom’s University of Leicester announced a method of identifying individuals based only on their DNA, now a fundamental forensics tool. Made famous by television’s CSI series, DNA fingerprinting has been used to imprison many convicts, and free others, raising questions about the justice system in its wake.
Handout
7 Hello Dolly! (1996)
Ian Wilmut of Scotland’s Roslin Institute led the team behind the birth of the first cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly, preceding horses, bulls, dogs and others.
8 Worldwide Web (1989)
Physicist Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland unveils a method to link pages through the Internet as a way to share research. And now everything else.
Handout
9 Ozone unmasked (1987)
High over Antarctica, NASA scientists confirmed that chlorofluorocarbons — aerosols and refrigerants — were eating stratospheric ozone; a ban promises recovery for this layer of protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
AFP/Getty Images
10 Extrasolar planets (1995)
Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz report the first detection of a planet, named 51 Pegasi B, orbiting a nearby sun-like star. Over 200 “exoplanets” are now known, including one found in a nearby star’s “habitable” zone.
Martin Oeser, AFP/Getty Images
11 RNA interference (1998)
Working with worms, biologists Andrew Fire and Craig Mello report how RNA can selectively shut down genes, a dazzling research and medical tool.
12 Top quark detected (1995)
Atom-smashing physicists at Fermilab, a federal research facility, detect the top quark, a long-sought sub-atomic particle. Confirmation of its existence cements the modern understanding of the structure of matter.
Miami Science Museum, AP
13 Feathered dino found (1992)
U.S. and Chinese researchers find the remains of the first of many feathered-dinosaur fossils, confirming growing paleontological perception that birds are in fact, descended from dinosaurs.
NASA
14 Pluto dethroned (2006)
The discovery of Eris, a frozen world larger and farther away than Pluto, spurs the International Astronomical Union to disown the ninth planet.
AP
15 Embryonic stem cells (1997)
A University of Wisconsin team first isolates human embryonic stem cells, master cells that may one day be used to create rejection-free transplant tissues. Destruction of embryos to harvest the cells remains controversial.
NASA via AP
16 Water on Mars (2000-2004)
Spurred by a Martian meteorite that might hold fossil bacteria, NASA revs up its Mars program, with satellite images and the rover, Opportunity, finding that salty seas once sat on the Red Planet.
Handout
17 Oldest hominid (1994)
A 4.4 million-year-old Ethiopian fossil, Ardipithecus ramidus, presented by a University of California, Berkeley, team, predates all known human species.
Carolyn Kaster, AP
18 Intelligent design suit (2005)
Reaching “the inescapable conclusion that ID (intelligent design) is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science,” federal judge John Jones halts a Dover, Pa., school board’s bid to suggest to science students that an “intelligent designer” created life.
19 Neutrino mass discovered (1998)
Measuring cosmic rays, U.S. and Japanese physicists show that neutrinos — elementary radioactive decay particles — have mass, contradicting a previous belief and offering a surprising hint about a new theory of matter in the universe. The find also spurs searches for leftover neutrinos from the Big Bang.
John McConnico, AP
20 Abrupt climate change (1982-85)
Geologists and paleoclimatologists find evidence that sudden climate shifts, 60-degree temperature jumps and doubling of rainfall in some places, have occurred within the last 600 million years. Some worry manmade global warming will spark similar shifts.
Handout
21 Neuroscience explodes (1990-present)
The “Decade of the Brain” premieres new imaging devices that reveal how the brain really works.
22 Quantum teleportation (1998)
European researchers transfer — instantaneously and over distance — one light particle’s characteristics to another, opening a new secure method of communication.
23 Evo devo (1999)
Evidence that evolution alters genes active in infancy to create novel physical structures in species coalesces into a new branch of biology.
NASA via AP
24 Golden age of solar astronomy (1996)
The international Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) sun-watching satellites begin operations, opening up solar seismology and space weather forecasting.
Artistic rendering by Peter Schouten via AFP
25 Hobbit discovered (2004)
Still controversial, the discovery on an Indonesian island of Homo floresiensis — an 18,000-year-old, pint-sized human species — by an Indonesian-Australian team stuns paleontologists because of the small brain size of these tool-using hunters.
Source: Compiled and written by William Keck, Karen Thomas, Donna Freydkin, Andrea Mandell, Ann Oldenburg, Lorena Blas, Robyn Abzug and Susan O’Brian. Photo research by Kevin Eans, USA TODAY.
quitting-smoking’s benefits
Q. How long after I quit smoking are there benefits?
1. 20 minutes: blood pressure
Sooner than you think. According to healthbolt.net, after a few minutes your blood pressure returns to normal levels.
2. two days: taste and smell
Keep it up for 48 hours and your senses of smell and taste return, while your risk of having a heart attack begins to decrease.
3. three days: bronchial tubes
After 72 hours the bronchial tubes relax and your overall energy levels begin to increase. You can walk up stairs again!
4. one year: heart disease
In 12 months the probability of having a heart attack drops by half.
5. five years: stroke
At this point the likelihood of your brain getting punked returns to that of a nonsmoker.
6. ten years: lung cancer
After a decade your odds of a death sentence return to non-smoker status. Five more years and your heart attack risk falls to ordinary levels.
